WEEP News Sept 17, 2011

San Francisco- Yesterday, as part of an "opt out" judicial proceeding at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) the public had a chance to pose tough questions to a panel of utility and "smart" meter supplier executives, who responded at times by giving false information, vague, tight lipped reassurances, often refusing to answer relevant questions about the power of wireless radiation being emitted by the meters. The judge refused to allow expert medical testimony or public comment on the record or any questions regarding widespread health effects of the pulsing meters.

Outside at lunch, a boisterous crowd chanted "Pull the Plug," demanding that the entire wireless "smart" meter mesh network be scrapped, and insisting that any charges to "opt out" of the health damaging "smart" meter program would be akin to charging disabled people to access a wheelchair ramp.

Judge Yip-Kikugawa, who presided over the workshop- was assisted by several CPUC staffers, who circulated wireless microphones throughout the audience of about 100 people, a slap in the face to electrosensitive people who were already suffering from the pervasive wi-fi and cell phone radiation in the room, forcing several to leave the building. The judge attempted to rule out questions about "why" the opt out was necessary in the first place, requiring that the discussion focus on "how" various opt out proposals would be structured. Without addressing the reasons behind the widespread opposition to the smart meter program (largely due to adverse health effects) it quickly became apparent that it would be difficult to identify a solution if the problem was not discussed at the outset.

Judge Yip-Kikugawa threatened to shut down the proceedings twice after participants posed difficult questions about the power of the transmitters. Stop Smart Meters! Director Joshua Hart asked PG&E and Silver Spring Networks how they were complying with FCC regulations that state that "all persons must be kept at least 20cm from the meters" and that meters "must not be co-located." Silver Spring Networks replied that it was up to PG&E to ensure that FCC requirements were being met. Jim Meadows of PG&E replied with a short statement: "PG&E is complying with all FCC regulations." Clearly however, the company is in violation of these requirements, failing to warn residents to keep their distance from the meters and installing more than 100 meters in the same location.

Later in the afternoon, Silver Spring Networks executives admitted that the SmartMeters are transmitting continuously 24/7. Even though the meters only upload usage information 6 times per day to PG&E, the meters are continuously 'chatting' with each other 24/7 every few seconds in order to authenticate and keep the network synchronized. From their comments, it appears that potentially 90% of the meter chatter has nothing to do with uploading data to PG&E, it is chatter to keep the network synched up  radiation that has nothing to do with customer energy use. It now appears likely that much of the radiation that is making people sick is simply to maintain the mesh wireless network itself.

Yesterday, PG&E also confirmed that the individual home SmartMeter data is NOT used on a real-time basis for predicting power generation. The PG&E substations are what communicate the power needs on a real time basis. They also confirmed that turning off every wireless SmartMeter transmission would have zero impact on how the smart grid functions on a daily basis.

According to PG&E, the SmartMeter time-of-use data is analyzed later (sometimes months later) to make more accurate and precise power generation predictions, but the real-time nature of this data is not used in anyway by PG&E for operating the "smart" grid. In fact, the individual SmartMeter data is only uploaded 6 times per day to PG&E, and usually many hours after the power is used. So according to PG&E, the individual SmartMeters are completely unnecessary for communicating real time data and running the "smart" grid.

This raises the question as to why PG&E is deploying meters which are transmitting every few seconds 24/7. A SmartMeter which could upload the customers' time-of-use data one time per month (or be read by a PG&E meter reader employee) would serve the exact same purpose. PG&E would use this data in the exact same way for their billing and energy producing predictions, so the 24/7 wireless mesh network that is saturating our neighborhoods serves zero purpose for billing or energy conservation.

It was confirmed by the PG&E representative that a SmartMeter system which uploads the customers' time-of-use data for the entire month could be uploaded just one single time per month, and this would serve the exact same purpose for PG&E as the current 24/7 wireless transmissions which take place every 4 seconds. It is completely unnecessary and serves no purpose for our neighborhoods to be saturated in wireless radiation 24/7.

It became starkly apparent from the proceeding yesterday that a simple time-of-use NON-wireless meter read by a meter reader once per month would supply PG&E with the exact same data they need to make their calculations. The wireless aspect of the SmartMeter program seems only designed to eliminate human meter readers. The wireless saturation by the PG&E mesh network in our homes has zero impact on conserving energy. The truth is that the public in California are being exposed to wireless radiation from "Smart" Meters because PG&E does not want to pay meter reader employees and technicians to activate and de-activate power at homes and businesses, re-directing these funds to shareholder profits.

A lot has been said about the 'opt out' workshop on Wednesday at the California Public Utilities Commission . Here are statements from two of those present, shedding additional light on the ways in which the PUC and the utilities are together breaking the law, forcing 'smart' meter mesh networks into communities who say no:

"What I can say about the CPUC hearing Sept 14th on smart meter opt-out plans is this. The initial statement by Carol Brown, (CPUC President) Peevey's Chief of Staff, is faulty, and should be refuted in the comments back to the Judge  as a starting point.

The CPUC says that ratepayers should pick up the tab for a failed corporate policy, in opt-out fees. Is that true any time a utility business plan is fatally flawed? Badly executed? Do we reward corporate stupidity? With ratepayer money?

With all due respect to Carol Brown, the CPUC may have authorized smart meters,but they did not authorize PG&E or any other utility to develop a failed-from-the-startcorporate business plan and defective device.

If the CPUC authorized 'a concept', and PG&E implemented it in a dumb way (it is carcinogenic, consumers reject it, it is a security risk, it threatens medical implants, etc) then THE SHAREHOLDERS SHOULD PAY.

The CPUC didn't authorize a stupid, failed corporate plan. They authorized PG&E, and the other utilities to figure out and implement a plan that would work. THIS ONE DOES NOT WORK.

Why reward corporate failure? THE SHAREHOLDERS SHOULD CARRY THE BURDEN OF THE FAILURE. They invested with a stupid corporation and didn't watch for trouble."

Steve Martinot:

"There are two separate processes at work here: the enabling legislation that establishes the PUC with its powers, and the decisions that authorize the utilities to use wireless rather than wired technology. The enabling legislation is what set up the PUC in the first place, and gives the PUC the power to "do all things" necessary to regulate the utilities. I can get the citations and law numbers for you if you want them. I don't have them handy. But the state had already given the PUC the power to make that shift in authorization.

The problem has arisen because, this enabling law refers to the relation between the PUC and the utilities, it does not refer to the relation between the utilities and the people, except insofar as the PUC can regulate utility rates charged the people. But that is all. The relation between the utilities and the people can only be regulated by the legislature, through legislation, and under the protections granted the people in the constitution. There are property protections that PG&E has consistently violated.

Now, when the PUC interprets its authorization of the utilities as giving the utilities the power to impose the technology on the people, and to claim that installation is mandatory, the PUC is entering the realm of legislation, from which it is barred. Period. That is the force of the Circuit Court decision in Koponen vs. PG&E. When the PUC comflates these two relations, and thinks that it can authorize the utilities to ignore the refusal of this technology by persons in California, it is grossly overstepping its legitimacy and authority,because it is entering a realm that can only be regulated by legislation.

Franchise agreements belong to the domain of the relation between the utilities and the people. They are contracts signed between the utilities and the people's representatives. The legislature can override them by enactment, but the PUC can't because the PUC is empowered only to regulate within its relation to the utilities. The legislature has not overridden them, and the PUC has committed gross violations of its empowerment in claiming that those contracts do not prevent installation of the technology.

It is the PUC's overstepping its authority that is the real legal issue here.

That is why the opt-out option issue is such a farce. Opting out contains implicitly an assumption that installation is mandatory, and the option will simply create exceptions to that. But neither PG&E nor the PUC have the power to make installation mandatory, because that belongs to the relation between the utilities and the people, over which the PUC has not authority."

Canada.com"It's well within the health standards that have been set by Health Canada and the BCCDC." Olynyk said the WiFi signals used by smart meters are 1/100th of the strength of cell phones. "BC Hydro smart meters will only be transmitting four to six times ...

I thought you might like to know that we are a hard-wired facility now, we do not have any wireless modems in use. As we made many technological upgrades this year it worked out that we could loose the wireless.

Feel free to pass along this information to anyone who may find it beneficial, or give me a call if you like to talk about it.

This review is from: Waves and Fields of Wireless Communications and Electricity: Health-Effects and Unconventional Utilizations (Paperback)

This must is a "must read" for anyone seriously involved with the EMF/RF health debate. In my opinion it is the best, reasonably high-level, reference and narrative books on the subject that I have ever read (and I have read many dozens of books on these subjects over the last 20 years).

If I could, I would make it a condition that all people involved in setting world exposure standards should first be set an examination based on material from this book. Judging by the outdated comments of the safety of EMFs/RF (typically based on "if it doesn't heat you or electrocute you then it can't effect you") from many senior people in the traditional health physics field, most of them would badly fail such a test. This book should also be read by politicians and health agency official with a technical and scientific background who set legislation on exposure matters. It should also be read by senior technical management in all electricity industry and wireless/telecomms industry companies.

Who else should read it - who could understand it? Well, you will need a reasonable level of scientific and technical understanding not to get lost in the technical and scientific terms - certainly a first-year undergraduate in science or engineering should be able to read it easily. So should anyone who has been working in these fields for some years even if they have not been to university. The book does contain (very useful!) equations, etc., but can also be read as a fascinating and informative narrative without needing to follow the equations at all. It is a good read, written in good English.

This is the sort of book that I would have so much liked to write - but I would never have achieved such a masterpiece. What amazes me the most (having studied this area for over 25 years) is how amazingly comprehensive the book is. It is about electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from all sorts of sources (powerlines, electricity substations, mobile / cell phones and their mast, etc, etc) and their effects on the health and well-being of humans and animals and ultimately the planet.

In my opinion, universities should use it as a basis of an option module for second-year electrical and electronic engineering, physics and biological sciences students. It is a wonderfully detailed over-view of EMFs and Life, bioelectromagnetics, exposure protection standards, therapeutic and other uses of electromagnetic fields. It is a most unusual mix of easy to read (scientific type) text, plus scientific and technical details (including equations), plus excellent scientific references. Of course, because of it's wide coverage, other more technically detailed material is also needed for researchers working in these areas. This book enables you to have a comprehensive and knowledgeable basic understanding of EMF bio-effects.

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